The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have plenty to sort out in their secondary heading into 2026, but one thing looks settled: Antoine Winfield Jr. is still the safety who can steady the whole operation.
That matters because the cornerback room comes with real questions. Zyon McCollum, now 27, is the most experienced name in the group, but his play dropped sharply in 2025 after he opened his career looking like a true CB1. With Jamel Dean gone in free agency, Tampa Bay needs McCollum to rebound.
The Bucs are also asking a lot from their younger corners. Jacob Parrish, who was excellent as a rookie, is moving from the slot to the outside.
Benjamin Morrison is trying to get past a rough start to his NFL career after missing much of his rookie season with hamstring and quad issues, then dealing with a hip injury that had followed him since high school. He has already been hurt again during Tampa’s offseason program, and he has to show the team can trust him to stay available.
Parrish’s move outside opened the door for fourth-round rookie Keionte Scott to handle the slot. Scott is viewed as one of the draft’s steals, but he still has to adjust quickly to NFL speed.
Behind that group sits the player Tampa Bay can lean on most. ESPN ranked Winfield seventh among the NFL’s top safeties, and the case for him is straightforward: he’s one of the league’s most versatile and dependable defenders when he’s right.
After injuries limited him in 2024, Winfield got back to Pro Bowl-caliber form in 2025 and handled the role of Tampa Bay’s last line of defense. ESPN noted that he played mostly as a traditional deep safety, after the Buccaneers had used him at slot corner at times in the past, and he posted a 22.9% ball hawk rate with eight pass breakups on 35 targets as the nearest defender, plus two interceptions and one sack.
An AFC exec put it this way: "He's just so well-rounded and a very consistent player when he's out there," AFC exec said. "Can blitz, cover, rare instincts and always around the ball."
Winfield also fought through lower leg injuries early in the 2025 season and still appeared in 17 games. Tampa Bay believed his deep alignment last season cost him some of the production he usually creates closer to the line of scrimmage.
There’s also the bigger picture: since 2023, Winfield is one of only two NFL players, along with Buffalo’s Terrel Bernard, to log at least five interceptions and five fumble recoveries.
Another year removed from the injuries that slowed him down, Winfield has a chance to be even better in 2026. That would go a long way toward keeping Tampa Bay’s secondary from becoming the weak spot on the roster.
It wasn’t long ago that Winfield was being discussed as maybe the best safety in football. Now, after bouncing back in 2025, he has a real shot to climb higher than seventh if he stays healthy.
Heading into his seventh season with the Buccaneers, Winfield remains one of the most important players on the team.
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